Support NYCHA tenants at Fulton Houses in Chelsea fighting against privatization of NYCHA!
We’ve been tabling weekly at Fulton Houses, providing PPE, food, and literature to residents, and building relationships with the tenants to support their organizing. Through that we’ve been getting involved in residents' efforts to fight back against RAD conversion of NYCHA buildings.
RAD, or Rental Assistance Demonstration, is a federal housing policy that allows Local Governments to transition public housing from Section 9 housing to Section 8, meaning that while the building is still owned publicly, it is managed by a private company. This transition also removed many rights from tenants, and is ultimately a back-door path to privatization. Across the country, 94,000 public housing units have undergone RAD conversions in the last 8 years. Here in New York City, we are seeing this approach for public housing as well; Mayor DeBlasio, private developers, and many of our elected officials are trying to force through as many RAD conversions as possible before the Mayor is voted out of office; and city officials have a goal of converting at least 62,000 units by 2028. (You can learn more about RAD and the NYCHA tenant movement fight against it here and here.)
We know that privatization of public housing (and ultimately, therefore, mass evictions) are being forced through right now. During a global pandemic and worst economic crisis we’ve seen since the great depression, it is unconscionable for elected officials to be forcing people to lose their basic rights and ultimately have many forced out on the streets, so we are fighting back!
We are rallying at Fulton Houses at noon on Sunday, November 22nd. Speakers at the Rally include NYCHA organizers from Fulton Houses and across the city, organizers from the Movement School, as well as members of the YCL. We want to make sure we have a strong presence there to show the community, and the public officials, including and especially Mayor DeBlasio, that we will not stand for any form of privatization of NYCHA. We will fight for a Green New Deal for Public Housing as well as a Wealth Tax in New York State, and we will fight until equitable high-quality public housing is a right for all.